Army employee acknowledges stealing military gear

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A former civilian U.S. Army employee has pleaded guilty to theft after being accused of stealing sophisticated military equipment from a Northern California depot and trading some of it for marijuana.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento says 38-year-old Devon Gregory Biggs, formerly of Reno, Nevada, pleaded guilty Wednesday to theft of government property from the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong in Lassen County.

Prosecutors say he stole machine gun components, night vision goggles, technology that uses lasers for Illumination and low-light video recording equipment. Officials previously said the equipment was valued at nearly $85,000 and had recently been returned from Afghanistan and Iraq.

They say he traded stolen equipment for marijuana at least once.

His attorney Benjamin Galloway of the federal defender's office did not immediately return telephone and email messages.

Biggs faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in federal prison at a Jan. 28 hearing.